Colossal: Inside the company that is about to resurrect the mammoth

“I don’t want to break hearts with this, but I don’t think it’s possible to revive a dinosaur“says Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal.

But the objectives of his ‘de-extinction’ enterprise are no less fantastic: he promises a mammoth calf woolly born from genetically modified elephant cells to 2028or perhaps even before.

“I think we are closer to de-extinction than the public believes in general,” says the technology entrepreneur, referring to the process of resurrecting species that have become extinct.

However, not everything is ‘Jurassic Park’ style non-fiction. The enormous intellectual capacity of Colossal and more than $235 million in financing they also promote nature recovery projects y biodiversity restoration all over the world. “We believe that the deextinction and the preservation of species they go hand in hand,” says Lamm.

A nature-based solution to climate change?

According to a 2023 study published in the journal ‘Nature Climate Change’, the protection and restoration of nine key species (including African forest elephants, American bison, gray wolves, and sea otters) and their functions could improve considerably the capture and the natural storage of carbon.

It states that a rewilding project of this type could help us stay within the warming limit of 1.5°C established by the Paris Agreement.

The agreement itself gives great importance to the nature-based solutions for him climate changewhich represent 66% of its commitments, eclipsing both the technological solutions like limitations.

In collaboration with organizations such as Re:wild and the International Union for the Nature Conservation (IUCN), Colossalbased in Texas, is working to reintroduce disappearing species in the habitats that need them.

“I think we have to find new technologies, cleaner technologiesbut we also have to find ways to harness technology to empower nature so that it does what it was already designed to do better than what we are going to do through technology,” says Lamm.

But is de-extinction a realistic road for the restoration of nature and could have unintended consequences? ‘Euronews Green’ spoke to Lamm to find out.

Could the reintroduction of the woolly mammoth give a boost to biodiversity?

In theory, the reintroduction of woolly mammoths into the arctic tundra covered with moss could return it to the grass steppe that sequestered carbon of the Ice Age.

“Some ecosystems like the tundra need this herbivore drive” says Lamm. Grazing mammoths could scrape off the snow, allowing cold air to reach the ground, and fertilize the soil with their dung, encouraging grass growth. They could compact the ice with their heavy tread, slowing the melting of permafrost, all with a cooling effect on the planet.

“We have seen certain models like in the Pleistocene Park, where the right density of herbivores can lead to a nitrogen-oxygen cycle that begins to replenish those grasslands“Lamm continues, referring to the nature reserve in Russia that aims to recreate the mammoth steppe of the Pleistocene era.

A recent study, not linked to Colossal, exposed the potential for wildlife recovery efforts more tangible. It has been suggested that reintroducing a herd of 170 European bison to Romania’s Ţarcu Mountains could help capture and store the carbon released by up to 84,000 average American gasoline-powered cars each year. Colossal is also working with an indigenous council in North America to see if ancient lines of bison could be brought back to harness their ecological benefits.

However, the critics have raised ecological and ethical concerns. Will current habitats be able to support animals? What will be the impact on those who now occupy these landscapes? And could these vast sources of funding be better spent in other areas?

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“We’re not just crossing our fingers and hoping it works.”

Instead of reviving vulnerable fanged species from millennia ago, Colossal, which Lamm founded in 2021 with prominent American geneticist George Church, is working on a cold-adapted hybrid elephant con woolly mammoth DNA.

Although the hatchlings may be imminentare reintroduction in natureit is not. “It’s not like we were going to create 1,000 animals and open the doors and cross our fingers and hope it works,” Lamm says.

“The reintroduction into nature goes through a very detailed planmeasured and in stagesin which you go from one facility to a larger closed facility, to an expansive reserve and beyond into the wild… Those plans will take as long as time like the engineering of the animals themselves, perhaps in some cases more.

A peer-reviewed feasibility and impact study published by the company in February explores how many mammoths could exist and at what latitude, as well as their potential ecological impacts.

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In other cases of reintroduction of wild species, the invasive species that caused the disappearance of other species can be eliminatedcon positive results for the native ecosystem in general.

Also consultation with various interested parties, from indigenous groups to pressure groupsthroughout the process. Overall, Lamm says this increases the chances of “establishing integrable populations that can survive and maintain themselves in their original environments” and ensures that “there are many more intended than unintended consequences“.

Use technological advances to save existing species

Meanwhile, the scientific advances achieved in the process give one boost to living species.

Comparing de-extinction to the Apollo Moon launch, “but from a biological point of view,” Lamm cites the recent and revolutionary ‘EEHV’ vaccine developed by Colossal. It targets the endotheliotropic herpesvirus, which kills a fifth of all elephants born in zoos in Europe and the United States, and is also deadly to wild herds.

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He viruswhich has not been sufficiently researched for decades, can now have a cure after the company has financed it for less than three years. Colossal’s first EEHV vaccine was administered to an Asian elephant at the Houston Zoo in Texas in June.

“That’s pretty amazing,” says Lamm, who adds that all Colossal conservation technologies are shared with the world for free as part of its mission.

Other species what could benefit of Colossal’s technological advances include the white rhinos of the north and the sea ​​cowstwo species in critical danger of extinction.

Does de-extinction give humans an excuse to continue polluting?

Some critics argue that making extinction less definitive lessens the urgency with which extinction is addressed. crisis of the biodiversity.

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While Lamm doesn’t think it’s realistic for consumer behavior to permanently change to pandemic levels, as people stayed home and the world began to heal itself, he believes Colossal’s work has a “amazing halo effect” which really drives interest in protecting nature.

“I don’t think de-extinction technologies and species preservation will change people’s belief in love and affection for nature. I think it will exactly the opposite“, dice.

“I think that will increase people’s connection with nature and (will help them) recognize that we, as humanity, have technologies that we can develop to undo some of the sins of the past that we and other generations are also contributing to.”

“Many of the technologies we are developing have applications for humans”

but simply revive all species that have been exterminatedIt is not a realistic solution. “Recovering animals is very expensive…recovering all those species is prohibitive. It’s much better to save what we have.”

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Through Colossal’s work with leading conservation groups, it is “generating awareness about some of the biggest problems that exist”.

The return of species like the headline-grabbing woolly mammoth “gives us this emblematic moment to come together. Not only for conservation, but also for human health care, because many of the technologies we are developing have applications for humans“, dice Lamm.